Sign in

Matthew Friedman

@friedman.bsky.social
702 followers 462 following 571 posts

Historian, journalist, Jew, Canadian expat in MAGAmerica.

PostsRepliesMedia
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
Teaching a class on the Abolitionist movement just before Pesach is one of the great joys of my job.
000
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
I do find it amazing that many of the same people who unquestioningly and unequivocally support the State of Israel are eager to destroy Canada.
110
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
That feeling when the department coffee machine is kaputt.
000
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
#3 is, in fact, my lived reality.
020
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
Not a lot you can do about it, tho.
030
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
There was a time when I would have been disappointed that Ovechkin beat the Great One's record. But now, I am just glad he pushed that disloyal, MAGA-loving casino shill down a rung. May Gretzky forever be an asterisk. #ovechkin #gretzky #hockey #elbowsup
010
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
I remember when the mass protests of 2017 - the Women's March, the March for Science, the demonstrations at immigration detention facilities, etc. - restrained the first Trump administration and saved America! #jaded
000
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
It is worth remembering that almost anything "made in the USA" is inferior to virtually any imported product. Thus, paying the tariff hit might actually be worth it in the end. #tradewar #buyforeign #tariffs
000
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
I was a strong NDP supporter when it was a social democratic party. When it took a right turn into dishwater third-wayism under Tom Mulcair, the party ceased to have any real value to me. Given the choice between voting for the Liberals or the ineffective wannabe Liberals, I choose the former.
000
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
I have been an NDP voter for most of my life and, before moving to the US for grad school, a long time member. But I have never seen such a pointless, weak-tea party like the one led by Jagmeet Singh, not even Audrey McLaughlin's 1993 team. I'll be voting Liberal. #canada #politics #ndp.
000
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
One of the places where I am going to feel the tariffs hit is when I buy groceries today. I was going to buy some Canadian or Welsh cheddar. But now I might have to settle for American cheddar. And American cheddar is utter crap. #tariffs #cheese
020
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
Uh huh. Apparently, it is "disrespectful" to teach history now.
010
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
High school history, perhaps
010
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
... In other news, I had a real Mr. Dixon moment as I walked across campus to get lunch. So many students greeting me brightly. Kinda makes up for a lot. #teaching #room222
020
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
A student complained that I showed "disgraceful disrespect" to Andrew Jackson because I accused him of genocide. #teaching #education #ushistory
210
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
'Our lives have been overwhelmed with these “what ifs,” and I find myself recalling the generation of German Jewish and left-wing writers and intellectuals who tried to read the tea leaves of 1933-1939 in order to know when it would be the “right time” to flee.' #expats #canada #MAGA #expatlife
friedmandossier.com
Booking It - The Friedman Dossier
"Getting the Hell out of here" is on my mind these days. I live in a deep-blue part of New Jersey, no more than a couple of miles from one of those liberal universities that give Redhats hives. But if...
010
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
Oy.
090
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
Paving stones. Plainsboro, NJ. Fujifilm Instax Wide. #analogphotography #instantphotography #instaxwide #fujiinstax #fujifilm @fujifilm_instax_northamerica
060
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
Oy. I mean ... Who cares if he was trash talking the administration. It is, after all a foreign government, like Iran, for example, and he has no ethical or professional obligation to play nice.
010
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
A student complained that I am "bringing politics into the classroom." This is in a course on US History since 1945, so it's hard not to. Is this my first taste of what teaching under the MAGA regime will be? How long will I have a job? #education #teaching #MAGA
120
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
"Life 'behind the lines' in America is not as dire as attempting to cross German trenches into No Man’s Land and then, one hopes, to safety. But there is a persistent reminder that I am an alien, and the threat that the regime can destroy my life, should it choose, hangs over me."
friedmandossier.com
Behind the Lines - The Friedman Dossier
I could never have imagined that I would find myself "behind the lines." The phrase was always a feature of the kind of military adventures that I consumed as a boy; the First World War ace forced dow...
030
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
Cone, Plainsboro, NJ. #fujifilm #instax #fujiinstax #instantphotography #filmphotography #analog
0120
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
My office clock has stopped. Is this an omen? Clearly the Atomic Scientists are to blame.
010
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Good.
011
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
I just double checked to make sure Elections Canada has my details. If you are a Canadian expat, this is where you can register to vote from abroad. The coming election might be one of the most important in recent memory. #canada #expat #canadians #election
elections.ca
Registration and Voting Processes for Canadians Who Live Abroad
Registration and Voting Processes for Canadians Who Live Abroad
010
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
I wrote this five years ago, at the start of the COVID pandemic. Yet, so much of it rings true in our current end times. For some reason, so many people believe that the Apocalypse is, or will be, fun.
friedmandossier.com
Ecstasies of the Viral Apocalypse - The Friedman Dossier
“Just purchased 4 rolls of toilet paper, kinda feel like Indiana Jones.” My friend had just returned from shopping the bare shelves of a suburban Chicago supermarket like an action hero for the essent...
010
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Garden implement, Plainsboro, NJ. #fujiinstax #fujifilm #instax #instaxwide #instantphotography #filmphotography
0150
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
Power, Plainsboro, NJ. Polaroid. #polaroid #blackandwhite #monochrome #filmphotography #instantphotography
1150
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
Backboard. Instax. #instax #fujifilm #instantphotography #tennis
070
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
Tennis. Polaroid. #polaroid #instantphotography #light #shadows #tennis
040
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
It is significant, I think, that CBC News has referred to the United States as Canada's "former ally" at least three times.
000
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
It is only possible to say that the US is a great country if you have never been anywhere else. And given that less than half of Americans have passports suggests that most Americans have never been out of the country. So American greatness is little other than the greatness of ignorance.
010
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
Oh, we talk about it all the time, and will someday. But it is never a simple question of loading up the Impreza and heading north. We have jobs here and a place to live. It is not a simple matter to leave where you have a livelihood to somewhere you don't.
010
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
Watching television, the ads in the break were, in order, online gambling, trucks, junk food, and a TV series glorifying the CIA. That, in a nutshell, is America.
000
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
There are practical reasons why I don't just pack up and head back to Canada. But I don't have any meaningful attachments to the US. It really is a pretty awful place. There are good people here, but the median American is a thuggish, vulgar, barbarian.
110
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
Why would I want to be a citizen of THIS shithole country?
100
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
Gnarly tree. #polaroid
020
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
Typewriter commentary. #typewriter #commentary #uspolitics #politics #totalitarianism #MAGA #hashtagpolitics
000
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
Remind me again about how "we beat the Nazis" before?
000
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
One of the things that I did not expect to see from "the left" was an enthusiasm for murderous violence.
000
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
No. Don't be a murderer.
000
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
I mean... Do you really think President Trump even cares that you think he's a fascist?
110
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
I'm working my way through Star Trek: Enterprise, and it is pretty good - much better than I remember. I think my negative opinion was probably shaped by that godawful theme song. One of the great things about streaming is that I can skip that.
010
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
One of the things that I find the most annoying about the Bluesky echo chamber is how eager many users are to block you over disagreements. It's like they just don't want you to harsh their buzz. I hate Facebook with passion, but it was never like this.
010
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
It is a matter of some debate as to whether South Korea or Chile were actually "fascist" in the same way as Portugal, Spain, and Italy. In any event, one can probably regard South Korea's Second Republic as a brief hiccup in more than two decades of authoritarian dictatorship.
010
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
Once.
000
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
Yeah. I don't claim to be an epidemiologist.
110
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
I'm a bit weird like that. 🤷
110
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
Not trying to be difficult.
110
Matthew Friedman @friedman.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
It is, I am told, "elitism" to believe that greater knowledge and education confer greater authority in those areas of greater knowledge and education. I am, therefore, an elitist. I own it.
220